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Medical and social attitudes and practices as they pertain to pregnant women and their unborn and newborn children are examined applying the scientific, the sociological, the psychosomatic and the pre- and peri-natal psychology perspectives. The case is made that hi-tech tests and obstetrical procedures adversely affect the pregnant woman and her baby. Medical interventions tend to be dehumanizing, disempowering and sometimes harmful.

ABSTRACT: It has long been accepted that there is a developmental process women progress through during pregnancy as they take on the parenting role. This paper develops a theory of the unborn baby's role during the prenatal period as an active instigator in this parenting role. Referring to the work of Arnold Gesell and adapting it to the prenatal period, the author theorizes that the unborn baby's growth and development drives the developmental process of the parenting role prenatally.

ABSTRACT: Evidence supplied through age-regression studies of adults based on a combination of ideomotor techniques and hypnosis suggests that telepathy, clairvoyance and some form of hearing are perceptions available to the human fetus from the emotional moment its mother knows she is pregnant onward. Fetal interpretation of maternal communications may be mistaken as rejection. Telepathic commands between mother and immature young probably have survival value for lower mammals. The mechanism for silent warning and absolute obedience needs completion before birth.

ABSTRACT: Two thousand, one hundred and sixteen subjects from a variety of backgrounds and places of origin responded to a questionnaire concerning their pre-and perinatal experiences and their present personality. Of particular interest were potential relationships between present personality and maternal drug use during pregnancy and labour, maternal stress during pregnancy, birth type, and physical placement immediately after birth. Responses were analyzed using non-parametric chi-square tests, t-tests, and point biserial correlations.

The concept of intelligence embodied in I.Q. tests seventy five years ago is now being radically redefined in psychology. New approaches formulated by Robert Sternberg (1988) and Howard Gardner (1983) are many-dimensional, behavioral, and closely related to everyday living. In this presentation experimental, clinical, and anecdotal evidence about life before birth is marshalled to meet the proposed criteria of intelligence. Six specific implications and conclusions are drawn.

ABSTRACT: The use of behaviorally defined sleep and wake states for detecting or predicting abnormal development in high risk newborn infants is addressed. One case of a relatively low risk 32-week gestation infant is used to illustrate that immediate subjective impressions by a trained observer may reveal information useful to the medical staff without having to wait for the lengthy computer analyses usually performed with this assessment technique.

ABSTRACT:This paper compares marriages of couples who gave birth at home in a private, loving, intimate way with a group who delivered in the hospital using the customary medical model of birth. Significant differences were found between the two groups at 4- and 12-months postpartum regarding the quality of the love relationship. The do-it-yourself homebirthers revealed far more compatibility in their marriages than did their hospital-delivered counterparts.